DPCC Co-Chair Lieu: What Makes America Great is Rule of Law
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Ted Lieu, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNNto discuss the extraordinary level of corruption associated with President Trump and the investigation into the Trump Inaugural Committee. Below is a transcript from the interview. Click here to watch the video.
"Let me say that the level of corruption associated with Donald Trump and his associates is extraordinary. It looks like virtually every organization Donald Trump has touched is now under investigation. We know that these are prosecutors that are separate from Mueller's office. They all took an oath to uphold the constitution. They did not take an oath to the President – they're going to do their job. We will see what happens with these investigations. It's hard to tell at this point exactly what they're going after. But we do know that Michael Cohen in federal court under oath basically said that Donald Trump directed him to make payments that turned out to be felony campaign finance violations. I'm sure prosecutors will want to know who else in the Trump organization knew about that."
"It is a matter of debate whether or not the President of the United States can be indicted. There's no debate whether the President's children can be indicted or his son-in-law. They absolutely can. So we're going to wait and see what happens with these investigations."
"That Americans understand the one thing that makes America great is the rule of law. We have investigators, law enforcement personnel and prosecutors that take an oath very seriously. They're going to investigate and go where the evidence leads them, even if this is the President of the United States or his family."
"What we do know is that this President and some of his family members do not seem to care at all about the emoluments clause or having foreign influence affect their decisions or using taxpayer money to benefit themselves personally. So it would not surprise me that part of the Inaugural Committee may have violated a crime."
"It could be based on public reporting. It looks like what they are looking at is activities associated with the Trump Inaugural Committee. What made this different is a huge amount of money was raised but only part of it was spent. So I think prosecutors are trying to figure out, where did the other millions of dollars go? Did they go to enrich Donald Trump or his associates or were they spent on legitimate activities?"
"It would be helpful if the President actually acknowledged basic facts. Last year, Donald Trump's in his own words, he said that we know from the latest FBI statistics, violent and property crime were down across the United States. Study after study shows that immigrants commit less crime than native born Americans. If we can agree on those facts, then we can move forward and look at the border and say okay, what discrete areas might actually need some physical barriers? And by the way, have you seen a map of the Administration that they have shown you with a border wall across the southern border? They haven't shown such a map because most of the border doesn't need a wall."
"We will see the President in Court. I note that if there was a national emergency, Donald Trump would not have golfed this weekend, nor would he have waited over two years before declaring a national emergency. When Congress writes laws, we expect the words to mean what they say: national emergency. you don't wait over two years and say it's a national emergency and clearly, there's none."